Revisit Ray LaMontagne’s best Philly moments before seeing him at Susquehanna Bank Center on Saturday
Ray LaMontagne returns to the Philadelphia area this Saturday for a headlining performance at Camden’s Susquehanna Bank Center. The folk-influenced singer/songwriter from New Hampshire is currently on tour promoting his new album, Supernova. However, it’s far from his first stop in the Philly area. LaMontagne has been here several times playing venues from the Tower Theater in 2012, the Mann Center (with The Pariah Dogs) in 2011 and WXPN’s Free at Noon series at World Cafe Live in 2010.
Supernova has garnered great reviews from outlets such as Rolling Stone, The Guardian, and AllMusic. However, this album is a bit different. Whereas LaMontagne’s previous four albums were pretty much straight up folk, this one – while still maintaining folk routes – is a little bit closer to psychedelic rock or even alt rock in cases such as the albums lead single, also titled “Supernova.” But don’t worry, this is a good thing. The A.V. Club’s Chris Mincher praises the genre shift by writing that the new album “is a surprisingly bold, enterprising follow-up from an artist who could have easily ridden out the rest of his career on adult-alternative autopilot.” It’s possible the influence to change things around came from his new producer, Dan Auerbach. Prominently known as the singer/guitarist of garage-blues band The Black Keys, Auerbach been on a bit of a producing spree as of late, also working on the last albums from Lana Del Ray and singer Nikki Lane.
But going back to LaMontagne – his past shows in Philly have been phenomenal. And if you don’t believe me, there is audio and video evidence to prove it. Below, listen to LaMontagne’s 2013 appearance on World Cafe with David Dye, and watch a roundup of videos from his past Philly appearances. And get tickets and more information for his Susquehanna Bank Center show on Saturday here.